The foreign ministers of Israel and Pakistan, a Muslim country that has long taken a hard line against the Jewish state, met publicly for the first time today, a diplomatic breakthrough that follows Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

A senior Palestinian official said today that Yasser Arafat’s government was considering declaring a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem if Israel tried to impose a boundary on the Palestinians.

THE White House called on Palestinian prime minister-designate Ahmed Qurei yesterday to make denouncing and dismantling extremist groups which target Israel the top priority of his new government.

ISRAEL may release a few dozen jailed Islamic militants along with several hundred other Palestinian prisoners, a move that could give a critical boost to lagging peace efforts, it was reported yesterday.

By Mideast standards it was a pinprick attack, but a car bomb blast in Jerusalem today pushed peace talks even further into the distance.